From Threat to Treat: The Lionfish Initiative in Greece

Lionfish airs a superior menace to autochthonal ecosystems due to the fact that they person fewer to nary earthy predators successful the Mediterranean. Public Domain

A unsocial concern is warring backmost against 1 of the biggest ecological threats successful the Mediterranean —the lionfish —and it’s utilizing a astonishing weapon: gastronomy. Cruise enactment Swan Hellenic and the conservation radical Elafonisos Eco person joined forces to motorboat the “Lionfish Control” initiative.

The lionfish is simply a important ecological menace to the Mediterranean Sea and Greece owed to its presumption arsenic a highly palmy invasive species. It entered the Mediterranean chiefly done the Suez Canal, a improvement known arsenic Lessepsian migration, and has rapidly dispersed passim the eastbound portion of the sea, including the waters astir Greece.

Lionfish airs a superior menace to autochthonal ecosystems due to the fact that they person fewer to nary earthy predators successful the Mediterranean. Their venomous spines deter astir section taxon from attacking them, allowing their populations to multiply unchecked. A azygous pistillate lionfish tin nutrient up to 2 cardinal eggs per year.

Lionfish treats successful Greece

The task precocious came to beingness for passengers aboard the SH Diana, who were treated to a feast of lionfish. The culinary lawsuit featured caller catches from section waters, which Swan Hellenic’s chefs transformed into delicious dishes.

A feast of lionfish. Credit: Elafonisos Eco

The peculiar meal was followed by an informative workshop, wherever Elafonisos Eco representatives explained the dangers of the invasive lionfish portion besides highlighting however to crook this menace into a affirmative unit for the section system and environment.

Gastronomy against food invasion. Credit: Elafonisos Eco

The effort has besides gained enactment from the Lassithi Development Agency, which is promoting the inclusion of lionfish successful section diets crossed Crete. This concern shows however antithetic sectors tin unite to make applicable solutions.

“This taste change—the translation of an ecological menace into an opportunity—is astatine the halfway of the Lionfish Control initiative,” a associated connection from Swan Hellenic and Elafonisos Eco confirmed. The collaboration serves arsenic a almighty exemplary for however tourism, science, and section communities tin enactment unneurotic to support our oceans and physique a much sustainable future.

Elafonisos Eco, founded successful 2013, is the archetypal ecological relation created connected a Greek island. Based successful Elafonisos, Laconia, it promotes the imaginativeness of “Living Green”, combining section information with planetary practice to code captious biology challenges.

Related: Lionfish Invasion Battled by Scientists — and Chefs